Earlier in the week, a last minute announcement was made about democratic socialist, Bernie Sanders. I read in an article that he was coming to Temple University and presenting a speech at the Liacouras Center.
Right away the news spread and thousands of Temple students grew ecstatic and started preparing for the big event. Within hours, there were students already signed up to help volunteer during the day and night. Hundreds of social media posts were blasted on the internet commenting on Sanders unexpected arrival. There were even rumors of people willing to camp out by the Liacouras center just so they could get a close up of the presidential candidate. Whether a Sanders supporter or not, everyone was talking about him coming to Philadelphia.
The doors opened at 5:00p.m while Sanders arrived at 8:00p.m. Throughout the day, I walked around the building and went up to multiple people waiting in line. I got the chance to go to the very front of the line and get a brief interview of some people while news stations were approaching the front of the line. The majority of the people who were at the very front said that they have been waiting in line since 6 in the morning.
Since it was such an early time, I asked people how they entertained themselves throughout the day. Most people went in a group and either put up with the long hours or they all took turns in case someone got hungry, tired or had to use the bathroom. I noticed people brought items such as laptops, cards, chess, snacks, bottles of water and other items to keep them busy.
As time went on and the crowd grew, I started to become nervous. I’ve never had the opportunity to hear a presidential campaign speak in person and I was very determined to hear Sanders. A good friend of mine was more eager to see Sanders than me so I promised I would wait until she’s done class and we would go together. My friend got done class after 7 and immediately raced over to my place so we could drop off our bags and put on warmer clothes incase we got stuck in line for too long.
The line went all the way past Jefferson St. and although it was packed with people, we got close to the center within 25 minutes. The line was filled with students but there were also families and locals here as well. Along the way there were people selling Sanders merchandise for cheap prices while cars would honk at us to show their support for Sanders.
Due to an overpopulated crowd, my friend and I got stuck at Pearson Hall but we heard from people that Sanders was kind enough to stop by and see us first. Apparently he wanted to make sure that everyone in the crowd got to see him. Within minutes we were inside the basketball stadium in the building.
The stadium was already seated with people chanting things such as “feel the Bern” and “Bernie Sanders 2016” and other similar chants. My friend and I got seated at the very top of the bleachers and the second we fixated ourselves, Sanders himself appeared on the court.
Screams of joy were blasted inside the tightly packed stadium. Everyone on the bleachers stood up and waved their hands or posters at Sanders as he made his way to the center of the court. Sanders walked into the center with a huge smile planted on his face and his hands held high in the air.
He greeted and thanked his supporters for coming out to see him on such short sentence. While he was happy to see such a wonderful turnout, Sanders got into business right away. He briefly talked about issues such as the Flint water crisis, the rights for gays, equality for women, women being able to have abortions, and his economic policies.
Sanders is very passionate when it comes to spending money properly on the citizens. He’s outraged that we’ve spent trillions on a war we should have never gone into. He demands that every single person be provided health care and brought up how we’re the only country in the world that doesn’t provide health care to their citizens. He’s angry that college tuition is overly expensive so he plans on making tuition free.
Sanders told the audience how important it is for us to have our voices heard and if we want all these changes to happen, we need to go out and vote.
Almost every sentence Sanders spoke, the crowd cheered after him. I listened carefully to what he had to say but I also took a bunch of snap chats of him and sent it to my friends. I was very impressed the way Sanders handled things out there and made him out to be a man who cares for our country.
Sanders stayed at Pearson Hall for a half hour then left to head over to the Liacouras center. The entire room went nuts as Sanders made his final statements. He mentioned the importance of voting again and promised that if he were elected, he would create many changes that would benefit our country.
Sanders left an admirable mark on the crowd as the majority stayed and cheered him on even when he left the building. His supporters were just as passionate as he was and everyone there was very friendly and talkative. I’m very pleased that I was able to attend this event and got to hear him speak in person.